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Having been reading a number of people's debt-free wannabe diaries for some time now, I have finally decided I will start my own.

We are less than three years from wanting to stop work, and less than ten years from state retirement age. I manage our household finances and DH lets me get on with it. His attitude is more "live for today" so we are a good balance, I think. We have two holidays each year and sometimes more - and he has some boys toys - 2 Harley Davidson motorcycles in the garage, that seem to always need money spending on them. That said, there is more to be said in favour of a happy and contented DH than against them so I don't resent them in any way.

So to debts - It seems a good time because I have recently finished the finance on my car, and as of yesterday, paid off the finance for DS's car (I borrowed from him 18 months ago and paid back by buying his car on finance and paying his insurance). I was paying 4.7% on that debt so it was my highest priority. I paid it off 10 months early using most of my HSBC Regular Saver that matured this week.

Oh my! That's a lot. I have put in a few bulk orders at Healthy Supplies, but that's amazing.

“

Well done DH!

He's got the replacement printer cartridge. It arrived by post this morning. He just said,

"Don't worry, I checked out the company - they are UK based, with a valid VAT number, lodge annual accounts with Companies House and have proper premises in the UK (from where the goods are despatched by UK employees)"

They might not make them here but we can make sure that when we buy them, the taxes we all pay are sticking to the UK economy for our benefit and not that of a foreign country.

Oh my. I have continued to track everything. My totals are currently:
£5601.34£5046.85 in total (this is last month's CC items that are being paid for this month too) but I just realised I had included the CC payments too - so double counted (phew!)

Still got some money in both CA with only 3-4 payments left. I will keep updating this but I will need to look critically at what is where. Top of my eek-list is work-related. It does include my season ticket £713.50 until the end of May

What does payments include? That is a pretty large category so presumably bills, mortgage, credit card payments etc? I think you do as we do and use a credit card for food and fuel and repay in full each month in which case you are double counting or the figure in spends is not accurate i.e the credit card should be broken down into categories - food, fuel, meals out etc etc and not included in payments if you see what I mean?

Debt free and mortgage free and early retiree. Living the dream

I'm a Board Guide on the Debt-Free Wannabe, Mortgages and Endowments, Banking and Budgeting boards. I volunteer to help get your forum questions answered and keep the forum running smoothly. Any views are mine and not the official line of moneysavingexpert.com. Pease remember, board guides don't read every post. If you spot an illegal or inappropriate post then please report it to forumteam@moneysavingexpert.com

Spending app trackers are great for seeing what you are spending. Santander have one which covers all spends on debit and credit cards so I swear by this one for tracking what we spend on meals out, food, fuel etc etc.

Debt free and mortgage free and early retiree. Living the dream

I'm a Board Guide on the Debt-Free Wannabe, Mortgages and Endowments, Banking and Budgeting boards. I volunteer to help get your forum questions answered and keep the forum running smoothly. Any views are mine and not the official line of moneysavingexpert.com. Pease remember, board guides don't read every post. If you spot an illegal or inappropriate post then please report it to forumteam@moneysavingexpert.com

In terms of breakdown - first my work-related, I can claim all of it except my season ticket, which is down to me but only while I continue to work. Unfortunately, at £713.50 from 16th April to 24th May it is high (that is Easter to half-term - both planned breaks with the forthcoming one so DH and I can do a bit at home together (garden and tidying I expect).

Payments is all of the direct debits and standing orders. I am tracking the individual ones in a spreadsheet rather than an app (still using a full-size MacBook in our study with a lovely big screen!)

I could split out cost of living from payments on debts and savings I suppose but they are all automatic. I have taken out the three credit cards but realised as I was capturing these that I have also double entered water and Life insurance so off to remove these now. I will report again next week.

I normally use the debit card for my shopping, work-related meals, and fuel, rather than credit card, but this will probably change when I retire as my favoured CC for domestic spend is my JL card which gives me vouchers and once the travel costs drop off for commuting these will slow (and the bill will reduce)

Ooh, some of your "payments" are wonderful savings: an ISA and a mortgage overpayment plus loan repayment - does that still have lots to go? Thats a lot but unavoidable, of course! Excellent to find ore double entries too

Life insurance seems a lot? I can't remember quite what your circumstances are, SL, sorry - but as we know in my family, having life insurance to pay off debts in case of a death makes such a difference.

Downsized and paid off mortgage 2010Retired August 2016Paid off French mortgage September 2018

The loan runs until November - it is a two year 0% interest loan for the double glazing. Planned to end before my work does. I've just popped back to put the shopping in and checked DH's credit card. Mmm, there are a few hidden treats in there. I don't mind, as long as I account for them. I have split out his April statement and all the May spends now so it really is a double month.

Our life insurance is for £250,000 until my 70th birthday or first death and was taken out when our Son was still in school. It was designed to allow for a live-in support if one of us died, or to pay everything off and pay towards Son's guardians extra costs if we both died. If we were doing it now with a dependant it would have to be a million I suspect. We wouldn't get anything like this value-ratio if we cancelled and took out something else now. I guess if we get to 70 we will pre-pay for funerals and reduce our finance complexities, rather than go for a big policy again.

Got the letter from the BS noting the OP on Thursday. Really disappointed that they have recorded the balance at still £74,000.10, whereas their website shows £73,999.69. On the upside the balance is 10p away from the interest rate and now just £61.05 a month - or £2 a day (whereas the website has it as £62.35 per month. I might have to track that figure.

I had to order Bras after the bone in one broke through the fabric and erm practically impaled delicate bits (just over £85 so I can try two styles and two sizes - may return two).

I had a planned change of phone contract - buying two handsets outright (£879.98) for DS and me (it is his birthday and his Grandmother moved the money to me) - the upside is his contract (regularly over £60) comes down to £25 and mine to £15.30 (from £35) and the lovely man in the EE Shop gave us a discount.

I started to buy some wine and beers on offer as we have a planned party in August

Some of my TTs may need to come back to pay for my CC in June - I have literally logged every transaction

My expenses claims are not shown as minus figures to offset any work spends

Never the less. I am just so shocked. We have a week off and I will ponder

I know the feeling Suffolk lass.I was horrified when I tracked our spending in May. I am going to set some budgets for June and track all my spends again to see if this helps. I really want to try and understand/get a grip of our spending before we retire.

It is really interesting, looking at the breakdown. I will scrutinise the columns a bit more this morning, given I am up and about quite early (I am fighting a head-cold and have spent two three-hour spells in bed, sleeping, over the last couple of days)

I have just started to look at the actual possessions column. DH has a number of Bike things in there too. No wonder he thought he would continue with his phone handset without replacing it. He has something in Amazon, a visor, goggles. I bought a blanket and then there are those two mobile phone handsets.

Entertainment includes wine at my cousin's 60th birthday lunch (very much a one-off, and my pleasure), one dinner at the local pub; en-route home from the Station, when I was so late back on a week-day, it would have been too late to cook, and a quiz night which included hot food, entry fees and drinks; really good value and good company for just £13 a head.

Before we retired we did a similar exercise to you in that we looked at all our spends to see if our projected pensions would cover them taking out the work related ones and some of the fuel and adding on some retirement costs like extra energy costs (our direct debit has just gone up from £116 per month to £185 partly due to catch up but partly because we were home more over the winter so extra heating etc).

Looking at your costs and anticipating retirement as I think you finish end of the year and your DH next year is it? Presumably the fuel will go down and obviously no work related items? Debts and savings may adjust as you should be moving from saving to drawdown after retirement. There is nothing in others, food or entertainment which would worry me. Your DH spends a lot on bike related things which is presumably his hobby. DH and I have a personal spends account each to cover hobbies. If my DH wasn't constrained by this I strongly suspect our house would be full of "stuff" and our others budget would be close to £1000 each month. As it is thankfully he can only spend £200 per month and is forced to sell stuff he doesn't use to buy other bits. Hobbies is one spend in retirement which can increase significantly without some limits being set so I would talk to your DH about how this will work after retirement when he has more time to spend.

Debt free and mortgage free and early retiree. Living the dream

I'm a Board Guide on the Debt-Free Wannabe, Mortgages and Endowments, Banking and Budgeting boards. I volunteer to help get your forum questions answered and keep the forum running smoothly. Any views are mine and not the official line of moneysavingexpert.com. Pease remember, board guides don't read every post. If you spot an illegal or inappropriate post then please report it to forumteam@moneysavingexpert.com

Thanks ES - there is some good advice there. I am hoping we can continue to acquire some wood for our stove from locally without it ramping up our energy costs too much.

I don't intend reining in DH's personal spends at this point. He admits that at some point he could sell one of the Harleys but I think we can afford to hold on to both at the moment. I would like him to SORN them in the winter but it would really only be until he stops work, so the savings would not be too significant. They are also quite juicy - I notice this in the summer.

SL, now that you've analysed it all, you sound like you're fine about what you've spent? I think it's especially difficult for people like you and enthusiasticsaver - you've got the money to spend, in retirement too, but its not endless, so decisions have to be made. And like I said, knowledge is power. I especially love the late night coffees at a service station by the way that conjures up a great image.

Downsized and paid off mortgage 2010Retired August 2016Paid off French mortgage September 2018

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